


At The World's End

by kythen



Series: At The World's End [1]
Category: Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, End of the World, M/M, POV Second Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-29
Updated: 2014-08-29
Packaged: 2018-02-15 04:03:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2215056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kythen/pseuds/kythen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A look at what happens when the world ends and nobody goes down fighting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	At The World's End

"The world ends today." he tells you as you go to stand beside him, the both of you side-by-side on the balcony of a burning palace, watching the world collapse around you.

He is brilliantly lit by the flames surrounding the both of you, the wind smelling of soot and ash and just a little like disappointment as you watch years and years of hard work fall apart where you stand. You want to care – you really do – but it's hard to when all the years have taken its toll on you and you're just so tired at the end of it all. Everyone is, and that might have been the reason why this world is ending, when all its inhabitants can't seem to bring themselves to continue fighting any longer.

Because the world is ending, you drop your hands to the sides, the red wires around your arms taut against your skin, and the hand closest to him reaches out for his, tentatively. His skin is cool against yours as you slide your hand into his and hold it there, counting the seconds before you take it away. You're not sure if it's something he'll approve of but it is the end of the world and you're feeling giddy and bold and if you don't do this now when will you ever?

When you reach five, your sudden burst of courage fades and you retract your hand, very carefully looking ahead at the crumbling buildings and not at him. Before the tips of your fingers leave his palm, he catches your hand, properly, and slips his fingers in between yours. Caught off guard, you turn to look at him and he smiles when your eyes meet his.

"We're going together, aren't we? You promised to follow me to the end."

You return his smile and it betrays nothing about what you feel beneath the surface, which is beginning to feel a lot like regret. You remember that promise, which is really just an amalgamation of all the little promises you made over the course of your journey with him, collected and grown into this monster called devotion. "To the end", you had said and now you wish that the end hadn't come so soon.

But the world is ending and you've fulfilled that promise because here you are and here he is, and you've followed him to the depths of hell and back. This is the end and you are not going to let him go until you've seen everything through with him.

"And beyond." you tell him impulsively, tightening your grip on his hand. You are never going to let him go. "I will follow you beyond the end and wherever it may take us."

"Now you're just being silly, Ja'far." Sinbad says, mirth in his eyes as he looks at you. "There's nothing beyond the end; that's why it's called the end."

"We'll never know until it happens, won't we? Maybe endings aren't actually endings."

"You're being awfully optimistic today, huh. Usually it's the other way around." He turns away from the edge of the balcony, away from his country, and lifts your linked hands up between the both of you, leading you back into the palace.

The flames have yet to reach here, but it's unbearably hot and the heat presses down on you in waves, making you feel as if you are about to burst out of your skin. Somewhere at the back of your mind, you wonder if everyone had left the palace when it started to burn and if only Sinbad and you were the only ones so stupidly attached to this place to stay. Even if they had fled the palace, you wonder where they would go for safety when the world was ending anyway and dragging everyone along with it.

Down the corridor you go, a corridor that the both of you had traversed so many times before when the world was still whole and the most pressing matters at hand had been the lost cargo between Sindria and Reim or the challenge of where to fit the new refugees into an already overcrowded country. But maybe "whole" wasn't exactly a good word to describe the world when the abnormalities had already started breaking it in places long before you were even born. That was why you had plunged into this never-ending battle with Sinbad in the first place against Al-Thamen. But at the end of the day, there is only so much fighting a world can take and there is only so much fighting someone can take before everything starts to fragment and crack.

Sinbad leads you down the stairs and you follow him as he saunters out of the building and into the garden, even if it is ablaze and the smoke here is thick with the cloying scent of ashen flowers.

"The world is ending." he tells you again, spinning you around to face him properly. "It's ending right now."

"Then let's hope that there is something beyond the end." you answer. "If not, I'd look stupid dying all uncharacteristically optimistic like this."

Sinbad laughs at this, his voice reaching high above the sound of the crackling flames and the cracking world. The way he looks at you is so unbearably fond that you just wish that he's wrong for once and somehow, miraculously, the world won't end. Maybe somehow, miraculously, Ill Ilah would halt its descent on this world like the supposedly benevolent god it was lauded to be and leave this world to be. Maybe somehow, somewhere out there, someone would regain their will to fight again and stop all of this in a single, decisive blow. Maybe the world just won't end today.

"Ja'far." Sinbad says and you break out of your thoughts to look up at him, purely out of reflex. "I don't think I've ever told you this but I–“

It is then that the world decides to end, finally giving way around you and as the both of you are engulfed in a wave of light, you just wish that the end hadn't come so soon.

**Author's Note:**

> ~~To be continued?~~
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
